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diarrhea and low red blood cell count

SolaandLunasmom Jul 10, 2007 03:35 PM

My cat Sola has had diarrhea off and on for 2 weeks now. I emailed you about him craving grass (and i'm stopping him from eating it) but you thought he was deficient in something. What might that be?

I took him to the vet yesterday and they did an x-ray of his stomach and intestines and didn't see anything. His urinalysis was normal and so was his blood panel, except his red blood cell count is low.

The vet recommended that if his diarrhea doesn't stop we do a biopsy of his intestines to make sure it isn't cancer. What do you think? Otherwise he is acting totally normal. He's an 11 year old indoor cat (who goes out with me occasionally, but only when i'm watching) and he recently lost his sister who died of a heart attack.

he has a history of IBD and he has atrial septal defect which was just found when we did an echocardiogram of his heart after his sister died.

I'm not sure what to do. I know it's probably a coincidence, but when my other cat Luna went under the knife last year because they thought she had vaccine induced sarcoma and wanted to do a biopsy, she turned out to be totally fine and then 6 months later she died of a heart attack. I tend to think the surgery might have stressed her heart and I don't want to do the same thing to Sola!

I appreciate any advice.

Sincerely,

Lisa

Replies (1)

PHDrTobin Jul 10, 2007 05:12 PM

There is absolutely no reason for exploratory surgery in this case. He doesn't sound like a good candidate for anesthesia either, but if your vet can't feel any thickenings or nodules in the intestines on palpation, there is still the ultrasound and the endoscope. I would explore other causes for a loose stool before even considering those.

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